Surprise! I've been secretly developing a new body prototype for the past 5 months, and now it's nearly ready! It feels so good to get that off my shoulders. I've been bursting at the seams with this news for weeks, but couldn't tell you until I knew it would work. This is partially the reason I've been mostly absent from the web lately. Between this and the book and a couple of other really challenging new projects, there was no time to chat. Now, allow me introduce you to the rough master model of the Rubenesque!
Definition of RUBENESQUE
:
of, relating to, or suggestive of the painter Rubens or his works;
especially
:
plump or rounded (figures) usually in a pleasing or attractive way
<a
Rubenesque
figure>.
Her figure is inspired by the fuller feminine form of classical antiquity, painting and sculpture. Of course I also stylized it to suit my own aesthetic preferences and to add a touch of surrealism. I've been wanting to make this body shape for a long time, but things kept getting in the way and I'm so relieved to have finally done it.
When I sculpted my first, slim body model, I sculpted all the parts and joints separately, gauging the desired movement of the ball joints without ever stringing them together and testing how them move until they were already painted porcelain parts. The reason is that all the parts were made solid, without thought out hollows and at the time i didn't have a drill to drill them out and string them. It was a risky, arrogant and kind of a stupid thing to do as I had to fix a lot of mistakes postmortem, but the doll turned out alright in the end.
This body though, was a lot more thoroughly designed and modeled than the first one. I had spend a lot more time tuning every part to fit just right and to move like silk. I'm also loving the new shape. She is lovely.
I didn't think I'd finish it before summer, but it's starting to look like I just might. I'm already doing china painting trials on the first parts!
I know it's hard to judge properly at this early stage, but what do you guys think about her?